


you look like home and I hope you stick around

by t_hens



Series: reddie [1]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Getting Together, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mutual Pining, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-20 16:17:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21284585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t_hens/pseuds/t_hens
Summary: 'The trip was Eddie’s idea.'aka the losers take a vacation
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Series: reddie [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1534337
Comments: 10
Kudos: 265





	you look like home and I hope you stick around

**Author's Note:**

> yes, i'm on that reddie bullshit
> 
> a giant thank you to Moody for helping me out so much with this <3

The trip was Eddie’s idea.

It was suggested quietly in Bev’s room, where they’d all set up camp without it being a discussion. It was nice being close; they’d been robbed of time together and no one was really eager to sleep alone.

“Like to where?” Bev’s soft voice asked. 

Richie couldn’t see her and Ben in the bed from his spot on the floor, but he could imagine the way her cheek pressed against Ben’s chest. They had become inseparable and grossly smitten, but it was nice to see them happy. 

“I don’t know. Just somewhere warm where there are no clowns.”

Richie snorted and he felt Eddie’s eyes fall to him, but he avoided the gaze by pretending to yawn.

“I don’t really think any of us are that interested in visiting the World’s Largest Thermometer , Eddie Spaghetti.”

There was a rustling and then Richie felt the impact of Eddie’s pillow hitting him in the face.

“That’s not what I meant and you know it, dick.”

It was dark in the room, but Richie could still make out the frown and the scrunched up look on Eddie’s face, the same look that Richie had hazy memories of from when they were thirteen.

“I’ve been thinking of moving to Florida. You guys could come help me find a house,” Mike offered.

“Disneyland!” Bev giggled.

“Disneyland is in California,” Ben laughed and their shared giggles followed in what Richie assumed was a tickle fight.

“That would be nice.” Bill’s voice was heavy with fatigue and it would be a surprise if he actually knew what any of them were talking about.

“I’ll look at flights in the morning,” Ben said once he and Bev had settled down.

-

Apparently in Ben speak “_I’ll look at flights in the morning_,” meant, purchasing tickets for six of them, plus car rentals and hotel rooms. 

Everyone had protested and insisted that they pay him back, but Ben shook his head and refused, citing ‘making up for lost time,’ which resulted in Richie pressing a wet kiss to his cheek and saying he absolutely would love to be his sugar baby.

-

Richie flew often enough that it didn’t faze him any longer. He had a bottle of Xanax in his bag he could break out if he really needed it, but he’d been trying to stay away from things that clouded his thinking these days. Now he had things that made him look forward to his day.

Like the fact that Eddie’s seat was next to his on the plane, and he got to listen to him mutter under his breath about the types of illnesses you could catch from being in close contact with so many other people, and how the bathrooms were usually unsanitary, and it was like music to Richie’s ears. 

Like a long forgotten favorite song rediscovered. 

-

The flight wasn’t long enough to get any real sleep, so Richie mostly pretended to rest while listening to the soft sound of Eddie reading a book next to him. He spoke each word out loud, unaware that he was speaking. It wasn’t even an interesting book - some nonfiction novel about some strain of an illness his mother probably convinced him he had when he was young - but Richie couldn’t stop listening. Maybe it was because he liked the warm cadence of Eddie’s words, or how it felt like he was doing something private, just him and Eddie.

-

The hotel was a lot fancier than anything Richie usually stayed at, not because he couldn’t afford it, but mostly because he always felt out of place in nicer places. Most establishments weren’t enthused by his sense of fashion, aka jeans and a worn Hawaiian shirt draped over a holey Motley Crue t-shirt.

There were three rooms, two beds to a room, and there wasn’t a discussion about who would be sharing with who. They simply collected their cards and headed to their respective rooms, Ben with Bev and Mike with Bill, leaving Richie to trail after Eddie and his aggressive speed walking.

He tried to tell himself that he wasn’t nervous sharing a room with Eddie; they’d been sleeping less than five feet from each other for the past week, but it felt different somehow. Maybe it was that it was the first time they’d been truly alone since they’d ran out of Neibolt while it crumbled behind them.

Eddie didn’t ask what bed Richie wanted, just simply walked to the bed closest to the window and started going through his mountain of luggage.

“Who says you get that bed?” Richie demanded. He didn’t really care which bed he got, but he couldn’t stand the silence between them. It felt loaded, and he just wasn’t ready to deal with at. Arguing though, he knew how to do that. Teasing Eddie was like riding a bike - he hadn’t done it in decades, but it just was just as easy and satisfying as he remembered.

“You don’t even care,” Eddie snarked, pulling out a pair of slacks.

“Where do you shop? Seniors R Us?”

“Rather that than the ‘I’m a forty year old man who still wears cartoon boxers’ store.”

“How do you know what I have on my boxers?”

Eddie flushed and told him to shut up. There was red crawling up his neck and Richie felt his fingers twitch, eager to press his hand and feel the warmth for himself.

“I’m taking a shower.”

He brushed past Richie in what he probably meant to be an annoyed huff, but all it did was make skin where their hands brush together feel like it was on fire. 

It was gonna be a long trip.

-

Dinner was at an ocean front restaurant that Eddie had approved of, only after looking online to see what the most recent health inspection grade they received and agreed after seeing it was an “A”.

The food was good, even Eddie couldn’t find anything to complain about. Granted, he’d gotten soup, (‘_I have a shellfish allergy, asshole,_’ he’d hissed at Richie after he’d said it was the perfect meal for an old man), but he had eaten it like he was starving.

“We should go to the beach tomorrow,” Bev suggested.

Richie’s mind immediately supplied him with the image of Eddie stood in the sun in nothing but short swimming shorts and he had to adjust his position in his chair, his cock stiffening slightly like he was a teenager.

“Beaches are a breeding ground for bacteria and disease.” Eddie’s eyes were comically wide and concerned, as if they were discussing throwing him in a pit of germs.

“You don’t have to go in the water,” Bill said, rolling his eyes. 

“It’s not just the water! There are all sorts of contaminants in the sand, I read an article-”

A chorus of noises erupted at the table, everyone making their own noise to shush Eddie, who scowled and took a sullen bite of his soup.

-

After dinner they stopped at a Walmart down the street so Eddie could buy water socks and sunblock, and ten other things he rattled off that he would need if they were going to a ‘cesspool of bacteria’. Richie bought a beach towel that had a banana in sunglasses and a Hawaiian shirt similar to the one he had on. Eddie had hated it as soon as Richie held it up, resulting in him putting another in the cart so they each had one.

-

By the time they were back at the hotel, Richie had almost forgotten that he and Eddie were sharing a room. 

They were in a hurry earlier in the day, so there wasn’t too much tension between them, but once everyone parted in the lobby and separated, it was so thick it felt like a fog between them.

Neither said anything as they dug for their pajamas and took turns in the bathroom changing and brushing their teeth. Eddie reprimanded Richie for not flossing and Richie threatened to clean the toilet with his toothbrush if he didn’t shut up, which led to another angry squawk from Eddie. 

-

The beach was loud and crowded when they arrived, but no one (minus Eddie) was deterred by this. They found a chunk of sand they could set up their supplies and soon they had their own square of shaded sand where Richie carefully spread out the towels he’d purchased, smirking at the glare Eddie was giving him.

Bill, Mike, Ben, and Bev following slowly behind, headed towards the water. Richie laid back on his towel and toyed with the idea of taking a nap when he felt a light tap against his ribs. He opened his eyes and squinted at Eddie, standing over him.

“Will you help me with my sunblock?”

Even though his glasses were tossed somewhere to the right of Richie, he could still see the flush on Eddie’s cheeks, like he’d already caught too much sun.

“Uh, yeah. Uh sure,” he fumbled eloquently. 

He took the tube and squirted a generous amount into his palm, taking a deep breath before pressing his hand to Eddie’s back. His skin was warm and soft underneath his touch. There was a smattering of freckles across the surprisingly broad set of his shoulders. There was a half remembered memory of doing the same action when they would swim in the summers. The swooping in Richie’s stomach was the same that it had been back then. Maybe worse.

-

Everyone shuffled back into the lobby of the hotel a few hours later, cheeks pink and trailing sand behind them. They agreed to rest for a few hours and then meet in Ben and Bev’s room to order pizza and watch shitty 90’s era movies.

Richie fell face first onto his bed when he got inside, letting out a sigh of relief.

“How can you be tired? You literally just slept all afternoon.” 

“Not the same,” he answered, his voice muffled by the pillow he was nuzzling into.

There was a tsking noise from Eddie, but it was followed by the creak of the other bed. He lifted his head and turned to watch Eddie lay down and stare at the ceiling.

“How can you be tired?” Richie asked, mimicking Eddie’s voice terribly.

“I actually exercised.”

“Standing in the water for five seconds at a time and then running back on to the sand doesn’t count.”

There was some sort of mumbling from Eddie, but Richie chose to ignore it for once, laying his head down and trying to gather the energy to get up and shower. 

-

Bev texted everyone with specific instructions to wear pajamas, causing a minor meltdown for Eddie, who had only packed one pair of pajamas, the pair that was currently soaked on the bathroom floor, buried under their soaking swim trunks.

“I can’t wear slacks to bed,” Eddie grumbled, digging around for something else, though he knew it was futile.

“Can’t believe you underpacked. The balance of the universe is gonna be thrown now.”

There was a reply on the tip of Eddie’s tongue, but he was cut off by Richie throwing a lump of clothes at him.

“They’re gonna be too big, I grew out of toddler clothes a few decades ago, but they are better than business wear.”

“It’s not _business_ wear,” he had grumbled, pulling the plaid bottoms on. “It’s business _casual_.”

Richie was so pleased seeing Eddie standing there, practically drowning in his clothes, that he didn’t even bother teasing. 

-

The pizza was there by the time they made their way to Ben and Bev’s room, the delicious scent of tomato sauce and baked bread hitting them as soon as the door was opened.

Ben sat back against the headboard of one of the beds, Bev laying between his legs and leaning back against him, a look of total contentment on her face.

Bill was sitting hunched on the end of the same bed, chewing thoughtfully on his pizza as he typed out a text with one hand. 

Mike was perched at the head of the other bed reading through the hotels list of tv channels. Eddie and Richie both scrambled for the other spot by the headboard, shoving and grabbing until Eddie fell onto the bed, nearly on Mike’s lap, and raised his arms in victory.

“Suck to Tozier.” He stuck his tongue out tauntingly. 

“I’m too tired to come up with a mom joke right now,” he said, making a big show of flopping down dramatically at the end of the bed. 

“Too bad one of your writers isn’t here to make a joke for you.”  
“Harsh, Eds.” He pulled a piece of pizza out of the box on the table next to the bed and ate while he listened to Eddie protest to the nickname.

-

It was late by the time they returned to their room. The hallway was eerily quiet and Richie had half a second of panic, before reminding himself that he didn’t have to be scared of dark places and deserted spaces any longer. Nothing lingered there that would try and hurt him. 

Both men were quiet as they went about getting ready for bed. Things were still a little weird and stiff between them without the aide of their friends to distract them from each other.

Richie could hear the springs of Eddie’s bed creak as he started to lay down. The lights were off, so there was only the silhouette of his shape under the covers from the light in the parking lot, dimmed by heavy brown curtains.

It felt like every breath that Richie let out was too loud, too heavy. The only other sound he could hear was the air leaving and returning in Eddie’s lungs. His fingers twitched with the urge to slip into bed with him. Not even to touch him or anything sexual. He just wanted to be near him. 

The worst part about having your memories wiped and then returned was all the feelings that returned to him. He’d thrown up when Mike had called him, fear making bile rise in his throat, but by the end of the phone call he had remembered more than the all consuming fear he’d felt that whole summer of ‘89.

He remembered the quarry and throwing rocks at Henry Bowers when he was trying to hurt Ben. A hammock that really was built for one, but always held Eddie and Richie because they were both too stubborn to take turns. 

There was a creaking from Eddie’s bed, a few quiet footsteps, then a cold finger poking him in the shoulder. “Scoot over.”

Richie moved, his body on autopilot. Eddie crawled in and pulled the duvet over his shoulder. There was still a reasonable amount of space between them, a space that Richie really wanted to eradicate.

“And to what do I owe this pleasure,” he asked, using his best snooty butler voice.

“My bed smells weird,” he whispered. Richie could feel is warm, still minty breath, against his face and his fingers twitched again. 

“Probably jizz or something.”

Eddie shoved his shoulder, but instead of pulling his hand back, he let it rest on Richie’s arm. It felt like his skin was on fire from the small amount of contact.

“I hate you,” he grumbled.

“I don’t think you do.”

There was a beat of silence, a stretch of time that felt like forever and no time at all. 

“You’re right, I don’t…” 

The sentence trailed away and Richie waited with bated breath for him to finish.

What he received instead was the feeling of bed dipping where he laid and the pressure of Eddie’s lips against his cheekbone.

“Damn it,” he huffed. “It’s dark, I can’t see your face.”

Richie was certain that if there was enough light, he would see the red color his face probably was and the crease in his brow that he always got when Richie was annoying him.

“Here.” Richie reached out blindly, hand touching until it reached Eddie’s shoulder and he tugged until they were pressed together and he leaned forward and managed to get his lips on the first try.

The first kiss was shy and hesitant, but as soon as it was finished, Eddie was gasping quietly and surging back, kissing with a fierceness that made Richie's heart beat painfully hard.

“Fuck, I’ve wanted to do this for so long,” he sighed when Eddie broke the kiss to scrape his teeth along the edge of his jaw.

“Me too. Since I can remember.”

The admission was A LOT, and Richie was definitely gonna need to take some time and really think about and process it all, probably with a therapist, but for the time being, he let his mind focus on the way that Eddie’s hands were carding through his hair and how he was sucking so hard on his neck there was definitely going to be a mark.

He captured Eddie’s lips with his own and they kissed until both their mouths were swollen and chapped and his dick was so hard he thought he’d die.

-

“I wish we hadn’t lost so much time,” Eddie said quietly as Richie wrapped his arms around his waist, nuzzling his face into the crease of his neck.

“Me too. We have time now though.”

Eddie let out a contented sigh and lifted Richie’s hand to kiss his knuckles. “You’re right.”

There was still a lot to talk about, both good and bad, but Richie figured that was something for Future Richie to figure out. Current Richie was going to sleep and spoon the boy he’d loved for his whole life, feeling safer than he ever had before.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find this fic on [tumblr](https://tobieallison.tumblr.com/post/188769144551/you-look-like-home-and-i-hope-you-stick-around)


End file.
